Social Movements

Social movements come in many forms and the reasons behind them all vary. Although, they all seem to have similar battles and a lot of the same people to fight, when trying to make the change they’re fighting for. Rich people are a common factor most social movements have to go against in their fight for change. In “How do Rich People Control our Movements,” Christine Ahn explained how things may start off as a social movement but then there becomes a “concentration of money through institutionalized giving or through an elite population that wants to see a certain agenda pushed through”. She also explains how “foundations essentially determine which strategies get deployed within a social justice economic system”. We need radical economic change but the few people in control of philanthropy and these nationally organized foundations are not going to fund those kinds of radical transformations. As Christine Ahn perfectly stated, “Rich people are not going to fund the end of wealth”. Especially, when it undermines their power and essentially hurts them financially. This is made clearer by Dean Spade, when he says philanthropy can be for a good cause but “this is not an effective way for us to get at the root causes of poverty and racism and colonialism”. In “How Can We Win?” with Kimberly Jones, she states “Economics is why black people were brought to America.” Black people cannot win a game that was designed for them to fail, social construct is extremely broken. Her monopoly analogy was a beautiful comparison of the economic struggles black people have faced over the past 650 years. Social movements are critical to the improvement of society and educating people about social issues. Social movements have been taking place for decades and it’s unsettling the things people have to fight for and have been fighting for, for many years. Social movements for things like equality, justice, and rights are things we shouldn’t have to fight for. Why can’t we agree as a society we are all humans and should be treated as such? Why do we judge people based on their physical appearance? Why do we tend to make the rich richer to the detriment of the less wealthy?